Former Site of the South Manchuria Railway Company

Former Site of the South Manchuria Railway Company

The Former Site of the South Manchuria Railway Company is a cultural heritage site protected by Liaoning Province.

The South Manchuria Railway Company was the command center for Japan’s political, economic, and military aggression in Manchuria. At its establishment in 1906, it was granted approximately 1,100 kilometers of railway. Starting from June 1907, all acquired main and branch lines were converted to standard gauge, beginning with the conversion of the Anfeng Railway and its rerouting. While converting the tracks, the company also built the Yalu River Railway Bridge on the China–North Korea border. From 1908 onward, second-track construction was carried out on sections such as the Dalian–Changchun and Shenyang–Fushun lines; at the same time, the Port of Dalian underwent large-scale expansion.

A colonial institution established by Japanese imperialism in Dalian, China, for governing Manchuria. It was a local agency executing Japan’s national policies, abbreviated as Mantetsu. After the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Japan, according to the Treaty of Portsmouth, seized the southern section of the China Eastern Railway in Manchuria (from Changchun to Dalian) and privileges such as the operation of the Fushun coal mines from Russia. In 1906 (Meiji 39 in Japan), the South Manchuria Railway Company (i.e., a joint-stock company) was founded with a total capital of 200 million yen, of which the Japanese government invested 100 million yen, and the other half of the shares mainly came from the Japanese imperial family, nobility, and bureaucrats.

It commenced operations the following April, with a business policy focused on railway management, coal mine development, immigration, and livestock industry growth. The first president was Gotō Shimpei. The head office included departments for general affairs, investigation, transportation, mining, and local affairs; a branch office was set up in Tokyo, which housed the Tokyo East Asian Economic Investigation Bureau. It published periodicals such as the “Mantetsu Monthly Report.” In April 1907, the South Manchuria Railway Company began operations. After the September 18th Incident, Mantetsu transferred administrative rights over the railway annexed territories to Manchukuo in 1932.

In 1938, Mantetsu transferred heavy industries and chemical industries such as the Showa Steel Works to the Manchurian Heavy Industry Development Corporation. Thereafter, Mantetsu concentrated its efforts entirely on railways, coal mines, and intelligence gathering, while actively supporting Japanese imperialism in launching the war of aggression against China. As the scale of Japan’s invasion expanded, Mantetsu enterprises continued to grow and multiply. By the time Japan surrendered in 1945, its total assets had reached 4.2 billion yen, and the number of employees had increased from 11,000 at its founding to 398,000. In July 1947, Japanese personnel of Mantetsu withdrew from Manchuria, and all its institutions in China were confiscated by the Chinese government.